Data Points

The term Data Curation has taken hold and is now mainstream enough to be picked up by both marketing teams and MBAs as one of the ways they explain "what the data people do". 

Years ago, "data steward" was used to describe the care-takers of data within an organization. Data Steward is still widely used to describe a person that is responsible for the care and feeding of a specific database or process.  (I'll draft definition of that term if there's interest-- or feel free to post one). 

Both Data Curation and Data Steward can mean many different things to both the speaker and the listener with enough ambiguity to completely allow them talk past each other and leave the conversation with different understandings of who is doing what without knowing it. 

With that in mind, I'll offer this definition for Data Curation:

Data Curation:the process of gathering, sorting, formatting, cleansing, standardizing and maintaining data with a sense of responsibility for preserving, describing and delivering the value of the information contained in data to users.

My assertion is that Data Curation is an action of responsibility and authority that offers a service to other data users.  The description of specific application of data and the value of the data in intended uses may be the most important aspect of this definition.  A conversation with Colleen Reed, a co-worker and community member, left me with the question: does curation include documentation of such aspects as use cases? 

Please, let me know your thoughts on this.  I've been called a Data Curator a couple of times in the last week, and I'm curious to dig into what that means within the broader data community. 

The term Data Curation has taken hold and is now mainstream enough to be picked up by both marketing teams and MBAs as one of the ways they explain "what the data people do". 

Years ago, "data steward" was used to describe the care-takers of data within an organization. Data Steward is still widely used to describe a person that is responsible for the care and feeding of a specific database or process.  (I'll draft definition of that term if there's interest-- or feel free to post one). 

Both Data Curation and Data Steward can mean many different things to both the speaker and the listener with enough ambiguity to completely allow them talk past each other and leave the conversation with different understandings of who is doing what without knowing it. 

With that in mind, I'll offer this definition for Data Curation:

Data Curation:the process of gathering, sorting, formatting, cleansing, standardizing and maintaining data with a sense of responsibility for preserving, describing and delivering the value of the information contained in data to users.

My assertion is that Data Curation is an action of responsibility and authority that offers a service to other data users.  The description of specific application of data and the value of the data in intended uses may be the most important aspect of this definition.  A conversation with Colleen Reed, a co-worker and community member, left me with the question: does curation include documentation of such aspects as use cases? 

Please, let me know your thoughts on this.  I've been called a Data Curator a couple of times in the last week, and I'm curious to dig into what that means within the broader data community. 

The term Data Curation has taken hold and is now mainstream enough to be picked up by both marketing teams and MBAs as one of the ways they explain "what the data people do". 

Years ago, "data steward" was used to describe the care-takers of data within an organization. Data Steward is still widely used to describe a person that is responsible for the care and feeding of a specific database or process.  (I'll draft definition of that term if there's interest-- or feel free to post one). 

Both Data Curation and Data Steward can mean many different things to both the speaker and the listener with enough ambiguity to completely allow them talk past each other and leave the conversation with different understandings of who is doing what without knowing it. 

With that in mind, I'll offer this definition for Data Curation:

Data Curation:the process of gathering, sorting, formatting, cleansing, standardizing and maintaining data with a sense of responsibility for preserving, describing and delivering the value of the information contained in data to users.

My assertion is that Data Curation is an action of responsibility and authority that offers a service to other data users.  The description of specific application of data and the value of the data in intended uses may be the most important aspect of this definition.  A conversation with Colleen Reed, a co-worker and community member, left me with the question: does curation include documentation of such aspects as use cases? 

Please, let me know your thoughts on this.  I've been called a Data Curator a couple of times in the last week, and I'm curious to dig into what that means within the broader data community.